Kyle and her husband moved to Brookfield in 1986. She became active in local politics and started blogging in 2004. Her focus is primarily on local issues but often includes state and national topics, too. Kyle looks at things from the taxpayers' perspective in a creative, yet down to earth way, addressing them from a practical point of view.

POZNAN, Poland (AP) — Scientists studying the changing nature of the
Earth's climate say they have completed one crucial task — proving
beyond a doubt that global warming is real.

Now they have to figure out just what to do about it.

"It is critical for us to get a much better understanding of the
impact of climate change in some parts of the world," Rajendra
Pachauri, chairman of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.

Scientific warnings of potential catastrophe have been the backdrop
for talks among more than 10,000 delegates and environmentalists
negotiating a treaty to control the emission of greenhouse gases, which
have grown by 70 percent since 1970. The treaty, due to be completed in
one year, would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Pachauri said he was concerned that negotiators were sparring and probing — and leaving key decisions for the last moment.

"My concern is that if we leave everything to the end, we might end
up with a weak agreement that doesn't really address the problem," he
said.

Last year, Pachauri's IPCC, which collected the work of more than
2,000 scientists, said climate change is "unequivocal, is already
happening, and is caused by human activity."

It listed likely effects of global warming: arid regions will grow
dryer, rising seas will flood coastal areas, melting glaciers will
flood communities downstream and then dry up the source of future water
supplies, and up to 30 percent of all plant and animal species may
become extinct.

Since then, new evidence has emerged showing that ice caps in the
Arctic and Antarctic are melting, which threatens to dramatically raise
the level of the oceans and flood coastal cities and low-lying islands.

"Small island states are living in a state of fear," he said.

But Pachauri said there was no conclusive evidence the world is in imminent danger.

"I don't think we should jump to conclusions if we get material that
is based on the last one or two years," the Indian scientist said. The
IPCC issues its reports every five or six years.

The 2007 report cited a scientific consensus that global warming
should be limited to 2 degrees Centigrade (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to
avoid the worst scenarios. To contain global warming to that target,
carbon emissions must peak by 2015, then begin a rapid decline.

Pachauri now says governments should reconsider whether even that
goal goes far enough, since it would still raise sea levels from
between 15 inches (40 centimeters) to 4.6 feet (1.4 meters).

Dozens of scientists were among the delegations or nongovernment
groups attending the Poznan conference, exhibiting some of the latest
technologies and scientific studies.

"The skeptics are doing a good job because they are making us
present ironclad proof," said Lawrence E. Buja, a climate change
researcher for the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colorado.

But since that battle is over, he said scientists need to move on and look at the detailed impact of climate change.

"That's a much harder question," he said.

Buja, who contributed to the IPCC report, said scientists are
looking at futuristic solutions to halt global warming, such as
imitating the cooling effects of a massive volcanic eruption by
spreading sulfur in the atmosphere, or scattering billions tiny
refractors high in the air to dim the sun and lower the temperature.

But he said such radical solutions involve risks.

"How are you going to go up and find all those little refractors and
pull them down if something bad starts to happen?" he asked.

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